Are the Ukrainian separatists flying the Confederate flag?

News editor, foreign desk

Miroslav Runenko, a member of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic parliament stands in front of the flag. Photo: Kate Geraghty

Observers have noted the similarities between the flag of Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and the Confederate battle flag flown in the US Civil War. Unofficially, the red and blue pennant seen in Ukraine represents the "Federal State of Novorossiya", or New Russia, the name for the disputed part of Ukraine in Tsarist times. Today the flag is found in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, both separatist strongholds. It was the winner of a Facebook vote in May asking Novorossiya to select one of 11 possible flags.

The flag closely resembles the Russian naval jack and ensigns - flags flown on the ships - incorporating the crossed blue stripes or saltire of the St Andrew’s flag (which is also used by the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, which added the Scottish heraldic coat of arms in 1858 to distinguish its flag from the Russian one).

“The flag of the unofficial Federal State of Novorossiya has been used by Russian right-wing groups before,” said Deakin University research fellow Filip Slaveski. It was also seen during the ‘Donetsk Republic’ movement in 2005 which was at the forefront of Russian nationalist protests against the 2004 Orange revolution in Ukraine, he added.

Unofficial flag of the Federal State of Novorossiya Photo: Wikipedia

But Confederate flags (as well as white supremacist and Nazi flags) have been in circulation among both Russian and Ukrainian nationalists for some time. “At various Russian right-wing protests, other flags have been used, such as the original Confederate flag, and the flag of Texas, mostly to indicate that the supporters are anti-state and nationalist,” said Dr Slaveski.

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The fact that the flag “means different things to different people” suits the diverse background of Russian nationalists, who range from neo-Nazis to religious zealots, he said.

Another flag meaning different things to different people is the Confederate battle flag itself. Once the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia during the US Civil War in the 1860s, the flag was later used by the Ku Klux Klan and segregationists in the 20th century in cross burnings and violent protests against civil rights marchers.

Images that circulated in December of Ukrainian nationalists in Kiev. Photo: Supplied

Some American Southerners, however, claimed it symbolised not racial hate but southern identity and way of life – a controversial view today. Meanwhile, outside the US, the flag has in recent years been taken up by bikies, gangs, secessionists and people who identify as strongly anti-authority. In fact, images from December 2013 appear to show a Confederate flag and a flag with a white supremacist cross hanging from inside Kiev City Hall - put there by Ukrainian nationalists protesting against the government of then president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in February of this year.